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Women Feeding Africa: Innovative Business Solutions to Close the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity
Women quite literally feed sub-Saharan Africa: They make up 50% of its agricultural labor force and contribute 60-80% of its food. Yet they also face unique constraints that limit their productivity and reduce their returns. What would happen if women could access the same productivity resources as men? Agnes Makena and Racheal Wangari at Intellecap explore that question, highlighting enterprises and initiatives with innovative solutions to support Africa’s female farmers.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Entrepreneurship
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Is Vertical Integration Good or Bad for Off-Grid Energy Access? Let’s Get Specific
Pay-as-you-go off-grid energy business models are often vertically integrated, including elements of manufacturing, distribution, consumer financing, payment collection and after-sales service. But some believe it's more cost-effective to outsource many of these aspects of the business model to service providers. Paul Clyde and Colm Fay at WDI argue that vertical integration is neither inherently good, nor bad: They explore its history, and its advantages and disadvantages for the nascent off-grid energy industry.
- Categories
- Energy, Entrepreneurship
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Press Release: Rensource Secures $20M in Series A financing to Power Nigerian SME Productivity
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, only has 12 gigawatts of installed grid capacity, with just one-in-four Nigerians connected to the national power grid. In contrast, South Africa has 50 gigawatts. Rensource launched commercially in 2016 to address this problem
- Source
- Press Release
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Global Value Chains Can Help Developing Countries in Better Growth Outcomes
In the report titled "World Development Report 2020: Trading for Development in the Age of Global Value Chains" that was released on Tuesday, the bank argues that these reforms can help developing countries expand from commodity exports to basic manufacturing, while ensuring that economic benefits are shared more widely across society.
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Capgemini Turns to AI to Fix Food Supply Chain Sustainability
Business consulting giant Capgemini has launched a project which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to support farmers in improving environmental practices on their land.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
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Bringing Digital Financial Inclusion to Women: The Impact of an Integrated Ecosystem Approach
Despite many global initiatives aimed at catalyzing formal banking, almost 1 billion women remain excluded from the financial economy. According to Ankur Seth and Neha Kumar at Intellecap, it's now clear that financial inclusion for women cannot be attained by simply giving them an account or internet access. Instead, it will require an integrated digital financial ecosystem designed for women's needs – an approach Intellecap is piloting in India.
- Categories
- Finance
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A Roadmap to Food Security: Linking Geodata with Financial Inclusion to Support Smallholders
Smallholder farmers produce a staggering 70 percent of the world’s food, making them essential to food security. Geodata applications have been shown to improve these farmers’ yields and even boost their financial access – one of the main obstacles to increasing production. To help tap into these benefits, NpM’s Innovator’s Challenge brought together 17 tech companies with geodata-based solutions for smallholder financial inclusion. NpM director Josien Sluijs discusses the winning companies, and the broader potential of geodata-based innovation.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance, Technology
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USAID and Musoni Microfinance sign $8 million loan guarantee agreement to boost Kenya’s agricultural sector
Small scale farmers, individuals, associations, cooperatives and micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Kenya will be the key beneficiaries of this guarantee.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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